


Nerd Watching

by Nephren



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, Nerdiness, POV Solas, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 17:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5136839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nephren/pseuds/Nephren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solas’ focus zeroed in on Elena. Was she crooning to the plant?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nerd Watching

Solas looked up from examining the grip on his staff, the upgrade recently added was a welcome addition if not quite worn in properly yet, and looked towards Varric.

“Thedas to the Herald, are you with us?” Varric had a grin plastered over his face, seeming to take great amusement in his statement. Solas himself had easily slipped into a soft form of half-awareness and mused that Varric’s comment could of been directed at him as well. He flicked his eyes to the elf woman, kneeling in the soft damp earth, and smiled to himself along with Varric. 

The party had been making its way down the hill from the camp Scout Harding set up along the outskirts of the Hinterlands. They were en route to rendezvous with one Mother Giselle and had passed by a little abandoned hut. Solas had given little thought to the building other than assessing potential ambush sites. Elena however, had let out of a soft gasp and with eyes bright, practically bound across the small rise to where a small garden was set to the side of the hut.

She tossed her pack to the ground and hastily began to rummage through it. Solas had noted the pack before their departure, an efficient bundle with small metallic instruments strung through loops on the outside. Elena pulled out a thick bundle and began untying the leather wrappings. It was a book. Solas could see bits of vegetation sticking out from the uneven and discoloured pages. After retrieving a practical looking quill from her belt, Elena sank to her knees and then simply stared at towards the back of the garden. Solas exchanged confused glances with the others and then returned his attention to Elena. As he watched, her hand began to move across a page of the open book in her lap.

Solas moved up the hill to stand several paces back from this Herald of Andraste, and tried to grasp what could interest her so. It was elfroot. No, royal elfroot, that had captured her attention so thoroughly. Solas flicked his eyes to her face; her brows were drawn in intense concentration. He continued to watch her, fascinated and slightly perplexed by her reaction. Was her breathing faster? She was muttering soft words under her breath, but Solas could only pick up something about petiole length and tier one rare herb.  Her hand darted quickly, a rough sketch of the plant beginning to form where quill met page. Solas felt a smile tug at his mouth, Elena was a documenting this plant and completely oblivious to everything except the specimen in front of her. 

Solas turned to the reminder of the party whom were waiting patiently, if somewhat awkwardly, on the road next to the little hut. “Elena appears to not only capable of closing tears in the fade, but also a capable Naturalist as well.”

Varric shuffled to get a better view and looked up to Solas. “Well, that’s a sight I wasn’t quite prepared for. Our Lady Herald, sketching plant life.”

“Indeed.” Cassandra nodded, “although on the way through the Valley before meeting up at the forward camp, she had insisted on stopping at every iron ore deposit and elfroot stand to gather. I had tried to impress upon her the urgency of the matter, but she would hear nothing of it. This may be a pattern.”

Varric and Cassandra tried the usual polite techniques for rousing attention in another person. There was much clearing of throats and “Uh, Herald, we should be on our way...” and other suchlike comments, all of which did absolutely nothing to divert Elena’s focus.

“Well. Asides from oh, I dunno, dropping a chunk of obsidian on her precious plant, we may just have to wait it out.”

“I do believe you are correct, Varric. Although she would probably squeal with delight and begin cataloguing that rock instead of this plant!”

Varric snorted and continued throwing out ever more inventive suggestions to Cassandra on how to draw her attention. 

Solas had settled back against the low rock wall, leaning on his staff to watch the Herald work and allowed his mind to drift. An interesting woman this elf kneeling in the mud. At Haven he had known she was curious by nature. She had engaged him in conversation around his knowledge of the fade and spirits, and been receptive to his perspective. He had been genuinely surprised by her lack of attachment to the Dalish cultural practices and lore, and seemed to apply a discerning eye to her surroundings and history most elves totally lacked. He now watched her measure and catalogue the rather simple plant in front of her. This woman was not at all what he expected her to be.

Evidently Varric had lost patience and decided to draw Elena from her reverie and called to get her attention. 

Elena looked up towards the sound of Varric’s voice. A puzzled nearly irritated expression on her face as she took in her surroundings.  Solas watched that expression shift to a pink shade of embarrassment much becoming on her pretty face. Pretty, if marred by Dirthamen’s Vallaslin. At least he had inkling of why she would have chosen to tattoo her face with his mark. In Dalish lore Dirthamen was said to impart the gift of knowledge to the elves and Elena, if her worn notebook was any evidence, was a woman who greatly appreciated knowledge.

She lifted her chin and responded to Varric’s barb with more grace than Solas expected from the telling blush. “Patience, I’m nearly finished. Another moment and we can be on our way.”

Solas’ eyebrows lifted as Elena withdrew yet another book. Except this one was bound with wood and leather belts ran across the surface. To what purpose could the book-like thing have to warrant occupying so much space in a day pack? Elena unbelted the item and opened it upon the ground. Solas saw that instead of tied pages, the vellum was loose. How curious. 

Elena returned to the royal elfroot and nimbly cut it down at soil level with her belt knife and gently laid the large plant on top of the thick pages of vellum. With meticulous attention to detail, she arranged the foliage as it had been standing a moment before. Elena frowned down at the book and then ever so carefully dug her fingers into the soil beneath where the plant had been standing moments before. Solas’ focus zeroed in on Elena. Was she crooning to the plant? After a few moments, she was holding an entire root network gently in her fingers. 

Muttering sweet nothings of encouragement to the delicate roots, she deftly tucked a new page of vellum on top of the harvested plant and laid out the roots on the new page. She jotted a few last notes, bound up her notebook, and tidied her stack of vellum and vegetable matter. She then promptly sat upon the stack and began belting up the arrangement and returning all items to her pack once more.

Elena looked around at her party, and merrily asked, “Shall we be on our way to save the world now, yes?” and continued walking along the path as if she hadn’t just kept them waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour.

Scout Harding had briefed them all on the situation within the region, so all eyes had been watchful. Well, perhaps all eyes but the Herald, Solas mused. The party rounded a corner and abruptly came upon a fighting band of templars and rebel mages. But to Solas’ surprise, Elena was the first to spot and take action against the fighting enemies. She quickly whipped forth a spike of chain lighting that had a spectacular effect of both causing significant amounts of damage toeach warring faction and also alerting said factions to their presence.

Before Cassandra could barrel into the fray and command attention, one of the rebel mages broke off from the main group and returned fire towards the party. Solas, upon seeing the incoming fireball, quickly threw down a barrier to cover himself, Varric, and Elena. 

Or he had thought she had been included. Solas turned his attention to the templar currently trying to shield bash Cassandra into oblivion. Moments later he heard a fireball roar past his head followed by a crash of said fire into a solid object. The scream that followed put a chill into his spine and he clenched his teeth. The urge to turn towards the scream and assist was strong, but he pushed it away and instead dealt with the imminent threat to Cassandra. The scream, tinged with anguish rather than fear, had come from behind him and was far too high a pitch to be from the dwarf’s mouth. Solas slammed his staff to the ground and sent of a last volley of ice towards the melee clustered around the Seeker, and turned to find Elena.

His ears found her before his eyes could. The next sound he registered was a guttural roar: one part defiance and one part outrage. Solas found her standing face to face against the same mage who had returned fire from her first attack. Then he blinked. Elena had somehow managed to lose her leather coat and was now standing in her leggings, the knees of which were still lightly covered in earth, and a simple cotton shift. With his next blink, he also registered how well such simple garments showed her lissome frame to advantage. She dodged the next wave of fire sent her direction as the man fade stepped away from reach. Elena paid no head to the newly ignited fires around her, her focus was on the lone remaining mage and relentlessly pursued his fleeing form. 

Solas reacted quickly, throwing another barrier around the woman before the next blows could be directed her way. His additional barrier proved excessive for with one more defiant gesture from Elena, the opposing mage was down. With a huff, Elena turned on her heel and stalked back to the heap of items discarded on the ground. 

Elena had been fond of wearing a long leather mage coat, rather than the cloth robes often preferred by mages of this time. Elena’s path set her before a slightly smoldering pile of leather heaped upon the ground. Solas focussed on the items and distinguished the leather portion of her garb, thickly draped over her day pack. Small tendrils of smoke still rose from it.

Varric chimed in, “Let me get this straight. You took off your coat to protect your bag, instead of using all those defensive elements to save your own hide in that fire fight?” 

Although his words sounded critical, Solas detected a good deal of humour in the dwarf’s voice. 

Elena grinned up towards Varric, a cheeky expression on her face. “My bag was on fire. That sloppy bastard hit my pack nearly as soon as I dropped it. What else was I supposed to do? I couldn’t leave it burning; I have royal elfroot in there!”

“I take it your scream was derived from injury to your belongings rather than your person? Protective garb does little if one does not wear it,” Solas observed.

Her eyes took on a crafty gleam as she regarded him. “It’s not like I was without protection, Solas. Your attentive barrier upkeep was doing an ample job all on its own.”

At that moment Cassandra returned to the group and Elena took the opportunity to turn back to her task of recovering her possessions, a somewhat smug smile touching her lips as she worked. Obviously, she had noticed his inordinate administrations during the battle and was letting him know it. 

Although her attention could be consumed to the point of excluding the world around her, during battle, Elena was highly perceptive. She was able to witness events and deduce the meaning of quickly. And she did have a point; he had cast two barriers upon her in a span of no more than twenty seconds, when she also had her own barrier spell at her disposal.

Solas watched the lithe woman walk down the path, Varric and Cassandra following closely on her heels. A modern elf with a focus and will unlike many he had encountered yet. He may enjoy this mission a little more than he had been expecting to. He hefted his staff and followed onwards to the Crossroads.

 

 

 


End file.
